Creative Releases Official 32-bit Linux X-Fi Driver

[btarunr]

Creative staff has announced that it is ready with its first release of drivers for Sound Blaster X-Fi sound cards, that supports 32-bit Linux. The driver comes in the form of a source tar-ball. The drivers allow seemless operation over ALSA. Updates to the x86_64 drivers are provided as well. This driver applies to all X-Fi series sound cards based on the CA-20K series audio processor. Its known issues include lack of functionality for external I/O modules, and that there are no Linux versions of the applications Creative bundles in its Driver CDs, which work under Windows, as of now.

To download the drivers, select your compatible Sound Blaster X-Fi model from this page and choose Linux under the manual selection drop-down to list Linux drivers.

Source: Creative Forums

[ShadowFold]

Yay!... now wheres the Vista drivers

[imperialreign]

nice to finally see official support for linux - I'll have to update the XSS thread later . . .

[panchoman]

hmm the guys at creative actually got off their fat lazy asses ehh?

[frankie827]

Originally Posted by panchoman

hmm the guys at creative actually got off their fat lazy asses ehh?

well in the past the x-fi series has been targeted at gamers...do you know any hardcore linux gamers? :P

[KainXS]

I know vista gamers, i am one, and look how creative treats us

[frankie827]

haha so am i and yes they don't treat us very well

[npp]

Ok, call me a dumbass but I couldn't make it to the driver download page. I have always hated Creative's website and support and the good tradition continues. It's a complete mess, cudos. Besides, I really doubt the damn thing works. They never seemed to have got it right under Windows, a different OS will be definetely a disaster.

EDIT: Yeah sure, I'm the proud owner of an X-Fi that simply doesn't exist on the european product list, and there is no word about linux drivers in the download area of the us site.

[mab1376]

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=75443

posted the actual driver in last post earlier.

[CrAsHnBuRnXp]

I swear Im the only person who doesnt have problems with Creative.

[ShadowFold]

I don't have any problems in vista its just I never see updates and it took me an hour to find the actual drivers so I feel as if there is little to no support for it..

[btarunr]

Originally Posted by CrAsHnBuRnXp

I swear Im the only person who doesnt have problems with Creative.

Me too. There could be more people without problems than those with, but it's that while people with problems rant and express displeasure, those without remain silent and wait for the next product, so you feel all alone when you've a Creative product running smooth, since you don't have people come and tell you "I <3 my X-Fi", while I can remember having at least 10 propaganda emails ranting how much Creative sucks when I was posting in the X-Fi club.

As for this driver, I have a rant: why a 32-bit driver 3 years after the release? Why no applications? Even then, why tf is it a source tarball, leaving the users to do a fair bit of work to get the driver to work? Why couldn't it be an easy installer like that of the NVIDIA GLX driver? This is pathetic.

[NinkobEi]

i wonder if these will work with mah auzey card? might give me an excuse to dual boot linux

[mab1376]

Originally Posted by btarunr

Me too. There could be more people without problems than those with, but it's that while people with problems rant and express displeasure, those without remain silent and wait for the next product, so you feel all alone when you've a Creative product running smooth, since you don't have people come and tell you "I <3 my X-Fi", while I can remember having at least 10 propaganda emails ranting how much Creative sucks when I was posting in the X-Fi club.

As for this driver, I have a rant: why a 32-bit driver 3 years after the release? Why no applications? Even then, why tf is it a source tarball, leaving the users to do a fair bit of work to get the driver to work? Why couldn't it be an easy installer like that of the NVIDIA GLX driver? This is pathetic.

I've also never had any issues with my X-Fi under Vista or XP. But being an avid Linux user, that's was my only problem.

[FatForester]

What are you guys babbling on about with Creative having bad Vista drivers? I've used 3 onboard chips, 3 C-Media cards (Bluegears b-enspirer, HT Omega Striker, HT Omega Claro), and the Creative cards have the best drivers BY FAR. My only beef with them is how long it took them to finally enable Dolby and DTS support for the older X-fi models (as well as wanting to charge $5 for Dolby Digital Live! support on the External I/O), but other than that I can't complain... especially after seeing how atrocious everyone else's drivers are.

[imperialreign]

Originally Posted by btarunr

Me too. There could be more people without problems than those with, but it's that while people with problems rant and express displeasure, those without remain silent and wait for the next product, so you feel all alone when you've a Creative product running smooth, since you don't have people come and tell you "I <3 my X-Fi", while I can remember having at least 10 propaganda emails ranting how much Creative sucks when I was posting in the X-Fi club.

As for this driver, I have a rant: why a 32-bit driver 3 years after the release? Why no applications? Even then, why tf is it a source tarball, leaving the users to do a fair bit of work to get the driver to work? Why couldn't it be an easy installer like that of the NVIDIA GLX driver? This is pathetic.

really? sorry to hear that, man - I have yet to have any creative-bashing/ranting emails end up in my inbox . . .


. . . thankfully.



Personally, I've never had any major issues with their official drivers, but I tend to slap the beta drivers on as soon as they're out as well . . . hey, if I'm gonna run into issues, I'd like to be ahead of the complaint curve . . . TBH, most issues don't revolve around the drivers at all . . .

[mab1376]

Works perfectly!!

[btarunr]

Do you have access to features such as Crystalizer, etc? Subjectively how's the audio quality compared to the Windows version?

[mab1376]

Not that I can see, I've poked around a bit and I don't even see a setting for 5.1 setting or an equalizer. Nonetheless it works, and I've tested Rythmbox with MP3 and M4a files, Totem Video player with xvid encoded avi's and Firefox with the Flash Plugin on youtube and break.com

Audio quality is clear (no hissing or hiccups) however sounds a little drab, probably due to the fact i usually have the crystallizer on with and equalizer as well.

[btarunr]

Crystalizer is a software feature. Whether or not it's enabled in the Windows installation, it will be 'off' here, unless there's an option to enable it.

[mab1376]

Yeah I know, I'm saying I usually have it turned on when I'm in windows. So that's why my music collection usually sounds a little better, I'll test more tomorrow and let you know.

[mab1376]

found this interesting.